As I was perusing Instagram, I noticed that one of my Instafriends, LoveMrs, posted a photo of her post work out song by a British singer named Laura Mvula. I was immediately intrigued, mostly because of the photograph and her hair. After a little research I found out that this young lady has been around for a little while, and was also nominated for two Brit Awards, where have I been?? Ms. Mvula, a native of Birmingham, England, trained at the city’s Conservatoire, which provides professional musician training, for orchestral, jazz and opera performers. Off to iTunes I went, where her album, “Singing To The Moon” was available for $7.99. Her album is very eclectic, with a mix of pop, jazz and creative soul.I’m loving the video for Green Garden. Her voice reminds me a little of the lovely Amy Winehouse, who passed away much too soon. You also hear touches of Nina Simone on “Is There Anybody Out There?” Listen to her voice on Make Me Lovely… This song took my breath away, with it’s sweeping strings and horns… Beautiful!I hear a little bit of Bjork there. I’m also loving Like The Morning Dew, Green Garden, and Diamonds, actually the whole album!!!. This really is an incredible album. Visit Ms. Mvula’s website for more beautiful photos, news and music, click hereSing To The Moon is available at iTunes and Amazon. You can also listen to the whole album here Thank you Instagram for always inspiring me.

It’s been a hectic and extremely demanding last couple of weeks {my blog post about the Pink concert two weeks ago is still in draft!}. I hope you had a beautiful and blessed Thanksgiving day, and since you’re probably completely stuffed from all that food, you’re now detoxing until Christmas, where we’ll do it all over again!

I was talking to a girl friend of mine, and she introduced me to the song “Happy” by Pharrell Williams, which is from the Despicable Me 2 soundtrack. My friend has been listening to this song to start and end her day and swears it keeps her in a good mood. I have to say when I first heard it, I repeated it about 4 or 5 times, there is just something so catchy and “happy” about it, it makes you want to dance around the house like I did when I heard it. Plus it doesn’t hurt, that I think Pharrell’s quite handsome to boot!

So if you’re feeling a little low, here’s Pharrell’s Happy to perk you up!

Hello Darlings! This post is a little late, but as they say, “better late than never!” On Thursday, I had the pleasure of spending the evening (with a few thousand others) with Sir Elton John.

There are no words to really describe this concert; Elton John at 66 has more energy than I do. He played his grand piano and sang for 3 hours straight; and at one point got on top of his piano. His body a little rounder with age, his voice sounding exactly the same as watching him on Top of the Pops, all those years ago, and wearing a fabulous turquoise coat with sequins on the back, and blue sequined shoes. Elton sang all of his hits live (no mechanics), from the 70’s and 80’s, and a few of his newer ones. Bennie and The Jets, Someone Saved My Life Tonight, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Candle in the Wind, so many songs, too numerous to mention here.

When Elton hit that first piano note of Bennie and the Jets {my absolute favourite} the whole stadium went wild; we knew exactly what song was coming next, and yes he can still hit those high notes! Elton’s songs reminded me of growing up in London, at about 11 years old and just starting secondary school, sitting at the dining table eating my Corn Flakes before going off to school, in my navy blue school uniform. He took me back to a time when life was so much simpler. I sang myself hoarse to most of the songs I remembered, reminiscing about my “tween” self, a term which did not exist in the 70’s

The Verizon center was literally filled to the rafters, it holds approximately 20,000 people, and nearly every seat was filled. I’ve been to quite a few concerts there, and have never ever seen so many people, even the nose bleed section was filled to capacity. I don’t think people cared whether they could actually see Elton or not, just to be in the presence of such a great musician and hear the golden oldies was enough.

This post is really late!! Its been a hectic day, I’m trying to get things off my desk, which seem to be multiplying by the thousands, and at the same time, getting ready to attend a big event tomorrow, which I’ll tell you all about over the weekend, and/or Monday. Guess which one? All I’ll say is, it’s in New Jersey, all over social media, and will air on Nov. 3, what bigger hint can I give?

Well it’s Fabulous Friday Darlings, the weekend is finally here, and Thank God We’re Fabulous! It’s gotten really chilly here in DC, and it looks like the golden days of our Indian summer are finally behind us, until next spring.

Have yourselves a totally fabulous, and chic weekend, I’m going to leave with the song I’m listening to right now – Music of Life by Cerrone {I may have already posted this song, many blog posts ago), This song reminds me so much of my home town of London…

Today would have been Ms. Cruz’s 88th birthday, she was nothing but spirited, fabulous and extremely talented! Born in Havana Cuba in 1925, Celia Cruz rose to international stardom as one of the worlds greatest salsa singers. Google has paid tribute to her today, with their latest Google Doodle, to celebrate her life and her birthday.

Click here to view a video of Celia, singing one of her most famous songs, Guantanamera! I love the way she’s dancing… Absolutely love it!

Today I introduce my very first guest writer on Maylana’s Closet. I am proud to introduce Ms Althea Anderson, who is a prolific writer in her own right. Ms Anderson hails from East London in England, and is one of the original Sylista’s who ever entered my life, because she is also my big sister. Below in her own words, Althea describes in beautiful detail, her night at the Jazz Cafè while, attending the performance of The Floacist.

Blog Family, please welcome Ms. Anderson to the blogging stage.

Natalie Stewart ~ Floacist

I have heard it said, that there are angels who walk the earth in the form of man. The gift they possess, enlightens us on a daily basis; ensuring that we constantly look for the good within, they help us to remember our true purpose on this earth, which is to “Know Thyself” and be all we are supposed to be. One such angel is called Floacist.

On Sunday 28th April, my sweetheart and I had the pleasure of attending the only concert in London, her first on home soil in 7 years, I might add! For now I will leave you with just one word PHENOMINAL!

Who is she? A quick induction for you: Originating from South London, singer, songwriter, and poet Natalie Stewart, the original member and founder of the group Floetry, invited her friend Marsha Ambrosius on stage to perform with her. The combination of poetry and singing was an immediate success, and with that Floetry was born.

A hop skip and jump to the U.S., and two successful albums were released. “Floetic” in 2002 and “Flo’Ology” in 2005, both with memorable tracks “Say Yes” and “Supa Star” being the chart toppers. With the parting of ways in 2006, Stewart formed a production company producing successful plays, and threw in some acting of her own. Metamorphosing into Floacist, with two beautiful albums; “Floetic Soul” in 2010, and “TheFloacist Presents – Floetry Re-Birth” in 2012. We now fast forward to the Jazz Café in London.

Ladies in heels; guys with beautiful locs, and cameras poised in anticipation; the atmosphere was electric as I gazed around. Being a scribe myself (I love that description), I was anxious to witness a true priestess in full flow. A roaring introduction, synchronized with 3 backing singers, bongos, piano and guitar bring her to the stage. Opening with ‘Children of the Sun’ everyone connects, the journey begins… “Slow Down” eases us along our way, as we absorb the words of wisdom, and melody… Everyone starts swaying “doodaadoodaaadaaada…” Speechless! Fantastic! Time travelled and 9.15 p.m. turned into 11.00 p.m. Encore!

Floacist’s gift of rhetoric is breath-taking, poetry was created in its purest form, from the soul, blessings were had… Consider me blessed!

Happy birthday to one of the most extraordinary artists of the 20th century. Known as a renaissance woman and musical storyteller, Nina injected her classical background into her music, and was well known for her lyrics, of love and love lost, she also touched a great deal upon the civil rights era of being black in America in the 50’s and 60’s.

Nina wore the title of High Priestess of Soul; if you’re familiar with her music, you know why she deserved such a noble title. Ms. Simone would have been 80 today. Happy Birthday to one of the Original Queens of Soul.

It was hard to choose which of her songs to post, so here is one of my favourites “I Put A Spell On You”

Click image to see Grace Jones perform Slave To The Rhythm ~ Hula Hoop and all at Buckingham Palace!

It’s been an extremely busy week, so from the archives, here’s a repost of an article I wrote back in June. Ms. Grace Jones hula hooping at Buckingham Palace, in honour of Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee. Click on the image to enjoy the video.

This is who I want to be when I grow up to be 64 years old!! My sister called me from London and alerted me to Grace Jones‘ Slave To the Rhythm performance at Buckingham Place for Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee… Wow!! There is no one more fabulous than Ms. Jones. Grace appears on stage with a hula hoop by her side, then proceeds to hula hoop through the entire song! She Hula Hoops!!!! Check out Grace’s legs!!!

Grace makes me proud to be a British Born Jamaican!! As my sister says “She is a bad gyal” (in Jamaican dialect). At 64 Grace is still the rocking Glamazon she’s always been.

I’m loving this still photo from Solange’s latest music video for her upcoming single “Losing You“, which was shot in a township in South Africa. Local young men dressed in some rather dapper fashions are one of the highlights of the video.

Solange was inspired to shoot her video in South Africa because of the color in the architecture, the townships and the people. The new single has been described as “eclectic with ’80s references and African percussion influences.

I’ve always preferred Solange, I relate more to her sense of style, and I feel she’s someone I could really hang out with to shoot the breeze and talk about real style!

I’m looking forward to seeing the concept, the styling, and hearing the music from Solange’s new project.

I love this photo of Solange and her son in the colours splashed bedroom of her Brooklyn apartment, featured in the September issue of Elle Magazine